Posted by alan on August 25, 2002, at 2:01:25
In reply to Re: To...Addiction vs. Medical dependence » alan, posted by Squiggles on August 24, 2002, at 19:39:29
> Alan,
>
> I don't think you or anyone else should
> be intimidated into not taking benzos -
> i think that each benzo has its "rational"
> use, and if given according to the prescriptions
> and guidelines of experts in this area,
> the chances of addiction are not ubiquitous;
> i believe that the short life ones are more
> prone to that; personally i have not have
> the same experience with Rivotril (thought my
> doctor did raise it once or twice due to
> tolerance - but this is over many years.)
>
> Having said that, i believe that withdrawal
> is a much more dangerous experience and fraught
> with unexpected symptoms which may be confused
> with another illness by a novice doctor.
>
> As for the status of the drugs themselves, i
> believe that in Canada and Britain they have
> been raised to a higher level of narcotic
> substances due to the testimonials and reports
> from the medical community.
>
> The pharmaceutical brochures also warn of
> habituation.
>
> With the growing awareness on how these drugs
> affect people after 25 yrs of consumption (they
> are relatively new) i think you can rest assured
> that your doctor will now be more informed than
> he or she was say 7 years ago.
>
> Squiggles
----------------------------------------------
Yes, and that is why they are being prescribed now more than ever. If any trend is to be seen with prescribing habits of specialists that know and understand these medications, it is that the initial backlash to overprescribing when they first were introduced over 40 years ago (sound familiar - as in ssri's?) is now being supplanted by knowledgeable use of these drugs - despite the stigma that cult groups such as the backward looking benzo.org continue to attempt to inflict on these perfectly and overall safe drugs and the vulnerable med-phobic chronic anxiety sufferers that are in need of them.I've already debunked the big bad benzo monster in my mind...and after years of being deprived the medication by a couple of ill-informed, or just plain old idealogue benzophobic docs...but many others new to this pathetic game carried on by anti-benzo zealotry, don't stand a chance of escaping the same zeal of these highly political and moralistic organisations.
It's alright though. Websites such as this (psycobabble) where people can make up their own minds will eventually educate those that would otherwise fall victim to these far-from-medical, indeed unethical organisations.
There are enough obstacles standing between doctor and patient including commercialism, simple misinformation, and medical ideology. It's too bad that benzophobic evangilists have to further muddy the waters with politically motivated websites that mistakenly believe that scaremongering to make the end justify the means are somehow "legitimate" obstacles.
Pathetic.
Alan
poster:alan
thread:116708
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020821/msgs/117703.html